Dictionary defines lethargy as state of being drowsy and dull, listless and un-energetic, or indifferent and lazy; apathetic or sluggish inactivity.

Under the said state of mind that will never go away, the U.S. Congress is trying to break the tax code as if it was the Da Vinci Code and it needs top-notch investigators to do the job for them.

Congress(wo)men tell us for years now that the tax code must be simplified so that ordinary folks can understand it, whatever that means – ordinary folks my ass.

Does Congress care?

Does that mean Congress cares about “us ordinary folks”? That will be the day. Every passing year, Congress gets closer and closer to the Roman Senate in lethargy – indifferent to the common folks. When they stop mentioning themselves in one sentence and “us common folks” in another, I would start believing them.

President Jimmy Carter’s administration introduced 1040EZ tax form and that made tax calculations and filing a lot easier for folks who were eligible to use it.

The rest of the tax system is so complicated that most taxpayers – whether they want to or not – have to hire professional help to fill out the forms. From time to time over the years, media have reported that even the Internal Revenue Service cannot give consistently accurate assistance to taxpayers on its helpline.

Consequently, what has happened is that more than $300 billion owed each year goes uncollected, according to an IRS study in 2005. It seems that it’s in the best interest of the government in general and the Treasury in particular that the tax code is simplified. The more simple the code, the more folks will file their tax return and the more money IRS will collect.

In a Nutshell
Now that the tax season is over, for most folks anyway, it is a good time as any in the history of the Republic that the U.S. Tax Code gets simplified by none other than the Congress of the United States of America. They have a chance to delete the word lethargy from the Congressional dictionary so that the American people can rest in peace. I mean that figuratively.